CopyCopy Kaizoku
by Sebastian Hewajima
Summary: A single crew, big dreams: the end of the world, make a special someone the Pirate King, and much more. The Strawhats will appear later.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Though this is a One Piece fan fiction, the Strawhats won't show up until later, so if that's what you're searching for, you're sure to be disappointed. If it's not what you're looking for: thanks for reading!**

**Chapter 1**

The salt spray rushed through Maria's hair as she desperately clung to the remains of her dingy that had the unfortunate circumstance of being blown up by a stray cannonball from a battle between two pirate ships near her.

Maria wore a red bandana around her neck, an orange tank top, a pair of black shorts and some black boots with golden studs.

"What the Hell!?" she screamed at them shaking her fist, knowing full well that if she fell into the water she was dead. "That's it! I'm coming over there!"

Maria quickly kicked and paddled her way towards the nearest gallant and climbed the rope ladder to the deck.

The clanging of cutlasses and the pop of flintlocks greeted her as she boarded the deck; she paused and tied her treasure, the red bandana around her neck, around her forehead to still her hair from slapping into her eyes.

"Oi! You stupid pirates! You blasted my ship apart!!" She screamed "Give me a new one!"

The pirates turned to look at her, and Maria realized that this _wasn't_ a battle between pirates; this was a battle between pirates and _marines_. Upon realizing this Maria promptly said "Ooh... wrong boat." And quickly ran across the deck and jumped the distance between the two ships, landing neatly on her feet on the other deck.

Maria took a deep breath and screamed again "Oi! You stupid pirates! You blasted my ship apart!! Give me a new one!"

The pirates looked at her and laughed outright, Maria confused as ever asked "What?" a stupid crewmate came up and spit in her face while laughing "Stupid, girlie. Our captain has a Devil's Fruit! You're in for it now!"

At that moment an unnecessarily big shoe hit the deck, revealing that this ship belonged to none other than Buggy the Clown. Buggy sneered at Maria and said "That's right I'm a Chop-Chop man! You're in for it now you stupid girl!"

Immediately Buggy's had detached from his body and was speeding towards Maria as a fist, until it stopped suddenly.

Buggy, noticing his fist had stopped looked away from his cackling crew to see what had happened, only to have Maria say "What a coincidence, Big Nose, I also ate a Devil Fruit, I'm a Copy-Copy girl!"

Buggy looked at his hand to see Maria's detached hand had effectively stopped it by grabbing onto his wrist. Maria winked and stuck out her tongue at Buggy "You gave me all the information I needed, Big Nose, for copying your ability, stupid." With that Maria dashed into the hull of Buggy's ship and began searching for another dingy to replace the one Buggy blew up.

"Hum... now if I were a boat where would I be...?" Maria wondered aloud as she ran searching the rooms, until she stumbled up on a room with a girl a little older than her 17 years, who had purple hair and was chained to a desk with some charts.

She looked about 19 and wore a red tube top with white circles decorating the hem, she had a long pose, useless outside of the Grand Line, on her right wrist, she had a heart of her left shoulder, she wore a black skirt and black boots.

"Hey!" Maria said as quietly as possible "My name's Nicoru D. Maria. Do you know where I can find a boat?"

The girl looked up, startled from her map and said "My name's Shina Kato. I can help you if you can get these chains off. But try to be careful if you have a—"At that moment Maria fainted from the Sea Stone chains draining her power.

"...Devil's Fruit power." Kato finished lamely. Maria jolted to life at that second and said a little embarrassed "I think I'm going to need a key, Shina-san."

"It's actually hanging on the belt of Buggy's pants, so it's impossible to get without bring caught, no matter what your ability is, so you should just leave me and—"

"Hold on, I'll be right back!" Maria interrupted as she sprinted back to the deck to get Kato's chains key. Upon arriving back at the battle, Maria stayed by the entrance and decided to use Buggy's own power.

"Copy-Copy no... Chop-Chop...!" Maria said quietly as her hand detached and started flying over to get the key. Maria shivered "Ew... worst Devil's Fruit ability ever..." she whispered to herself.

Upon grabbing the key and regaining her hand's reattachment to her arm Maria had no choice but to yell "Thanks for the key, Big Nose!" before running back into the hull to free Kato.

When Kato was free Maria said as seriously as possible "On our way to my new boat... if you see an angry clown with a big red nose... you... never... saw me. Understand, Shina-san?"

Kato nodded and began to run down the hall with Maria and wondered aloud "I wonder why they don't have any boats on the deck..."

"Well I though checking down here first would be safer..." Maria answered dumbly.

Kato stopped and looked at Maria with wide eyes before yelling "_YOU NEVER CHECKED THE DECK!!??_" at Maria.

Kato sighed and spun Maria around to the direction of the deck, and began running towards the deck muttering "Just my luck to end up with an idiot..."

Upon arriving back at the deck fate had gotten rid of the marines for the two, but Buggy was waiting for a battle from them, instead.

"Maria...?" Kato whispered. "Yeah?" Maria asked. "I'll get the boat ready if you can beat them with your ability."

"Sure, but how are you—?" Maria's question answered itself as Kato whispered "I ate the Cloud-Cloud no mi..." and she turned into wispy cloud and reappeared next to a dingy on the deck and began to lower it into the sea.

"You know what?" Maria asked Buggy and his crew "I was going to hand you your asses, but I like Shina-san's idea better. Copy-Copy no... Cloud-Cloud...!" Maria said as she turned into smoky cloud and followed Kato onto the boat, leaving Buggy and his crew furious.

As Maria and Kato drifted away from Buggy's boat Maria untied her bandana from her head and retied it on her neck, she then asked Kato "So... Shina-san, what's with the Long Pose?"

"Oh," Kato said "This was my father's, but I've always wanted to use it to see the 'end of the world'." Then asked Maria "What's with that bandana?"

Maria grinned "This was Gol D. Rogers, he left it on my island 20 years ago, and my father gave this to me."

"Hey," Maria asked "Want to be my navigator? I'm going to the Grand Line anyway, and I've been looking for one."

"Uh, sure." Kato said "But you'll only hear this from me once: Captain." As she grinned.

**A/N: Wow... 3 hours for 5 pages, not too bad. Chapter 2 should be up soon, but before I start typing it, I need to have some delicious ramen first! ...oh and I suppose I should do homework too... maybe.**

**Nicoru D. Maria – http:// .com/ art/OP-Kaizoku-Crew-Captain- 133249905 (remove the spaces)**

**Shina Kato – http:// .com/ art/OP-Kaizoku-Crew-Navigator- 133390460 (remove the spaces)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Since I currently find myself without internet due to a power outage that has lasted almost 4 hours now, and I'm not allowed to go to school since I apparently have "swine flu" (I don't, but if a kid coughs in class! Oh-freaking-no!) I'm at home today coughing up the rest of my cold.**

**Believe me, I would be working in my requests but I can't get online and see the reference pictures... so... yeah...**

**I forgot to say this last chapter:**

**I do NOT own One Piece, believe me if I did you'd better believe we'd be getting more than one update a week! But, Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece and all its glory, so I'm stuck writing fanfiction. But I enjoy what I do, so it's okay! :D**

Nicoru D. Maria and Shina Kato currently found themselves in a particularly hot stretch of ocean, but the heat was the least of their worries.

"I can't believe you didn't have any food or water, you idiot...!" Kato half-yelled at Maria in exasperation

"Well..." Maria explained "I _had_ some food and a barrel of water until that stupid Big Nose blew up my ship...!" Maria leaned over the side of the dingy looking hopefully at the water as if a magical mermaid would pop out and give them same water.

"...We need a cook." Maria muttered

"We need a ship." Kato corrected

"Listen to your captain... although you _are _right," Maria said standing up triumphantly "I say that we will get a ship _and_ a cook at the next island!" Losing her temporary strength, Maria slumped back onto the boards of the boat "Now, Shina-san... as navigator I recommend you find us that island...!"

"Yes," Kato answered sarcastically "With all my maps and compasses, coupled with the fact that I _obviously_ know where we are and—" Kato was cut off by Maria's snoring.

"...and we could just drift and sleep all the way to the next island, as you obviously wanted to do and figure out how to get a ship and a cook without any money when we get there... stupid captain..." Kato muttered

After a few hours of blissful sleep Maria and Kato heard the grinding of sand on the saltwater incrusted keel of their dingy and got into sitting positions to see where they had struck land.

Maria sat up first noticing their arrival and turned Kato.

"Oi! Shina-san! We're at an island! Oh I bet there's lots of food here! Oh and I cook too! And also a—" Maria senseless blathering was cut off sharply by Kato's hand.

"How you manage so much energy on an empty stomach I'll never know..." Kato sighed.

As if on cue Maria suddenly realized she was weak from hunger and held her stomach "Oh..." she groaned "I'm so hungry!" Maria whined.

Kato sighed again as they both got up and started walking from the shore onto the single cobblestone path that led further inland.

After a short walk they came upon a single building where multiple identical cobblestone paths all converged to a single building that seemed to grow out of the path into a circular cobblestone building.

Kato looked left and right for any other buildings, or people but found nothing of the sort.

Meanwhile Maria had walked up to the building's closed oak door and began banging incessantly on it with her fist "Oi! Anyone here!?" The door produced no answer.

"Aw..." Maria whined to Kato as she slumped against the door "I was really hungry t—"

At that moment Maria's sighs of hunger were cut off sharply by the door opening onto her and sending her flying right into the puzzled Kato.

"Ow! Shit! Dammit Maria what was that—?" Kato looked up at the person who had sent her captain flying into her.

"Hungry?" an overly high-pitched voice asked "Well why didn't you say so?"

"Because you hit this idiot with a door..." Kato muttered

Ignoring Kato the woman talked to no one in particular to no end, by this time Maria had reigned herself into a sitting position and took notice of the woman's features.

She was a rather large woman with thick blonde hair curled around her shoulders; she wore a maid outfit as if the restaurant was a café.

Maria in Kato blinked in unison at the woman's unusual outfit, the woman either didn't care or was ignoring the pirates, grabbed Maria and Kato's forearms and pulled them inside the building.

"This is the best restaurant in East Blue!" She announced to the pair "Have a seat and I'll take your orders, my name is Mindy!"

Maria held out her hand to stop the waitress from leaving to get the menus, Maria grabbed the hem of her apron, stopping her from leaving the pair "Bring us whatever you can make fastest." She stated blatantly.

The waitress beamed and brightly said "Of course!" Before trotting off to the kitchen.

Maria sighed and leaned back in her wooden chair as Kato leaned her head on the table and groaned.

Within moments the double doors to the kitchen swung outwards violently, revealing a black pointy-toed boot and a slender leg covered by black dress pants.

The girl who stepped out looked about 18, a year younger than Kato and a year older than Maria. On top of the black boots and dress pants she also wore a pink silk t-shirt and an unbuttoned black vest over it. Her hair was shoulder length and seemed to blend in with the similar-coloured vest.

But Maria and Kato were not looking at the girl's outfit or appearance, what they were fixated on most was the two platters coming towards them that the girl held.

Placing the food in front of the two starving pirates the girl said "Welcome to our restaurant, my name is Hana and—" Hana was cut off by the sounds of dishes clattering to the table and content sighs from the formerly-starving pair.

"..And I suppose you two were really hungry." Hana said bemused

Maria grabbed Hana's wrist and looked into her eyes with the best imitation of a serious face she could muster and said "Hana-chan, please join my pirate crew as our cook."

The girl in question's eyes widened and she promptly slapped Maria across the face and literally _into_ the wall.

"W-W-What the Hell?" Maria stammered as she tried to get unstuck from her very own two-dimensional entrapment.

Hana smirked "I'll join this crew of yours and finally get out of Miss Mindy's hair. Just don't call me 'Hana-chan'." She threatened.

Hana snapped her fingers and Maria fell to the floorboards of the restaurant, rubbing her head.

"Ow." Maria winced as she got up "As your captain, then, I feel I should tell you: we don't have any money to pay you for this food."

Hana walked up to Maria and made her completely flat again, rolled her into a tube and handed her to Kato "Here's the captain then, let's go to the ship."

"What ship?" was Maria's muffled reply.

**A/N: I finally finished it xD I've been on and off working on this since September 30****th**** and I just needed to get sick to have the time to finish it? Huh..**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: No one can top my confusion right about now, Sarah (toaster-crepe on deviantART) is forcing me to write chapter 3 of Copy-Copy Kaizoku **_**before**_** I finish writing chapter 2 simply because she is impatient for her One Piece self-insert (which is not self-made) to appear in this story.**

**One Piece is copyright Eiichiro Oda, clearly I am not him, believe me if I was I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be making it into a One Piece arc! Oh God, wouldn't you all hate Oda/me for that!?**

"You realize of course," Kato poked Maria's head "We still need a boat."

"You realize of course," Hana looked pointedly at Kato "She's an idiot?"

"I realize of course," Maria said loudly attracting their attention "I'm hungry?" Earning twin punches from Kato and Hana.

"That's it!" Kato announced standing up in the small dingy "I'm jumping into the sea to escape this idiot forever!"

Putting one boot on the side of the dingy Kato make a big show of almost seriously jumping into the ocean and sinking like an anchor, she sat down dejectedly and sighed "Never mind, I'm hungry too. "

Hana took out three apples and threw two at the navigator and the so-called captain, which only Kato managed to catch, Maria's fell into the sea and began to bob away from their little boat.

"Damn…" Maria cursed "I have the grossest Devil's Fruit for this, but what I would like more is another apple Hana-cha—" Maria whining was cut off by Hana's fist hitting her cheek.

"Don't call me Hana-chan! Get the apple yourself!" Hana fumed

"Ow, fine! " Maria said while rubbing her cheek, she sighed and called up her Devil's Fruit ability "Copy-Copy no… Chop-Chop…!"

With those words Maria's forearm was detached from her elbow and sailed over the blue-green waves towards her apple "Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew…" Maria stuck out her tongue at the feeling as she grabbed the apple and her forearm flew back to her.

Just as her forearm and the apple was within meters of the dingy a seagull swooped down and snatched Maria's arm in its beak and flew off.

"Well, crap." Maria said "I wonder how long Big Nose's stupid ability can fly away without anything bad happening?"

"Give it a minute." Kato assured her sarcastically

"Okay, but I'm really worried about my ar—" Maria's sentence was cut off by her whole body being pulled almost magnetically towards the direction the seagull flew

"CRAP!" Maria screamed as she was pulled off the dingy

Kato turned towards Hana "You row." She stated throwing her the oars.

Hana began to row to rescue their captain from the formerly-harmless sea bird as Kato kept watch lazily for any sign of the bird.

Meanwhile Maria had finally regained connection to her arm and was shouting at the stubborn seagull.

"You stupid bird! Put me down, dammit! I just wanted some food!" Maria thrashed about in the seagull's unearthly grip on her arm and her apple

"Fine!" Maria shouted at the bird "I'll give you the stupid apple, just take me back to my crew!"

The seagull's eyes flashed hungrily and swooped down on a nearby island in the vast ocean as they made their trade; the seagull received his apple and promptly flew away from Maria leaving her stranded on the island.

"I hate you!" she screamed as he squawked away from the island "I'm still hungry, you stupid bird!"

Maria slumped defeated and looked around at the island the seagull had dropped her on, seeing nothing but a grassy slope and a few trees.

Maria's jaw dropped open "No food!?" she screamed at the now gone seagull.

Muttering incoherently Maria stomped up the hillside and promptly sitting against the trunk of a tree and falling asleep against the bark.

Meanwhile, Kato and Hana were still searching for their idiot captain in the wide open sea.

"Not an island in sight…" Kato complained "I blame you." She looked pointedly at Hana.

"Oh like it's my fault!" Hana threw up her arms "I outta flatten you for not getting a boat in the first place with a proper kitchen and FOOD STORES!" she yelled at Kato

"Just keep rowing, please!" Kato snapped

Hana grumbled and continued to row aimlessly amidst the water.

On the unknown island where Maria was sleeping a cutting sound was half-heard through her veil of sleep, until a swishing sound was heard and the trunk of the tree just above Maria's head immediately fell off and landed with a crash beside her.

"Oh Crap!" Maria screamed as she stood up, feeling if her bandana was still around her neck "What was that for?"

She turned and saw a girl around 16 with dirty-blonde hair tied up into messy pigtails sticking out on either side of her head, wearing a blue tee-shirt that allowed you to see the kanji tattoo, which Maria assumed said her name, spelt _Sara_; she wore a black skirt, light blue tights on her right thigh and left calf, with small black boots.

What Maria was most interested in, though, was the very sharp katana pointing right between her eyes.

"Hi," Maria awkwardly stuck out her hand in greeting "I'm Nicoru D. Maria, got any food?"

The girl lowered her katana "I'm Sara," she said uneasily "That's what I was just doing." She gestured to the tree she had just sliced down and Maria saw bright red cherries glistening within the leaves.

While stuffing her face Maria looked up at Sara who was eating a bunch of cherries slowly "Hey, you're a swordsmen right?" Sara nodded "Do you want to join my crew? We're going to the Grand Line." Maria grinned

"Well, I would love to but…" Sara looked around the island and recalled how crazy she had almost gone bring alone for so long "Eh, why not."

"Great!" Maria beamed "Now Shina-san and Hana-cha-er, Hana, just need to find us. Oh also, do you have a boat?" Maria asked

"No sorry, but I've got a lot of fruit that we can take." Sara said

Maria smiled and looked out at the sea, seeing a little black dot of a boat coming closer, as it drew nearer Maria and Sara could hear shouting from it.

"…damn cook, you're terrible at everything!" "Oh, I'm sorry would **you** like to row?!"

"SHINA-SAN!! HANA!! OVER HERE!!" Maria screamed, making the dingy slowly make its way to the island

As the boat hit she shore Kato jumped out and slapped Maria across the face "I hate you…" She muttered

"Guys, this is Sara, she's going to travel with us from now on, also she has food." Maria said

"You're my hero!" Hana said excitedly hugging Sara

"To the Grand Line!" Maria yelled getting back into the dingy

Everyone else piled in and shoved off from the shore as they left the island and once again returned back to open water Sara asked "Hey, you guys aren't pirates right?"

"Actually we are, according to the captain here." Hana said pointing to Maria

"Oh…" Sara said awkwardly "Um," she sighed defeated "Whatever… screw it, it doesn't matter…"

"Alright then!" Maria said obliviously

The rest of the crew sighed for their very certainly doomed futures.

**A/N: Did I please you Sarah?**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hi guys! I finally came back… even though I didn't go anywhere… anyway!**

**I decided to write up a chapter summary in the back of my English chart for a novel we're reading, because I was bored during drama without Cia, one day.**

**So I now have chapters 4 through 15 planned out! Isn't that freakin' great?!**

**Oh! And before I forget: Cia has informed me that 'Shina Kato' sounds American in the order, so 'Shina Kato' is now 'Kato Shina', okay?**

**I don't own One Piece, geez. If I did it would be the most unpopular thing ever because I wouldn't know what to do with the characters, or have anything planned out… huh… sound a lot like those novels I tried to write… ANYway..!**

Maria, Shina, Hana and Sara slept in cramped sitting positions with their knees pulled up at an awkward angle to their chests.

Maria looked like the only one who was actually getting a well-rested sleep; the other crewmates continuously woke and dozed off again.

After weeks of being stuck on a dingy with Maria the three girls were praying for an island to show up to rid them of their captain if only for an hour or two.

The wind blew stronger whipping the purple hair around Shina's face, waking her instantly to the salty smell.

She opened her grey eyes with a lot of trouble and they widened as she saw a huge tsunami heading towards their little boat.

"Oh shit!" Shina looked at her sleeping captain "Dammit, Maria!" Shina screamed as she slapped her across the face

By now the rest of the crew was awake and practically abandoning ship in fear of meeting death by tsunami, but their Devil's Fruits kept them clinging to each other.

Maria, who had been slapped by Shina for a full minute was still asleep, until Hana had an idea.

"MARIA!" Hana screamed over the rushing of the wind "FOOD!"

Maria instantly sat up and said "Where?"

Seeing the drenched look of her crew, she peered behind them at the tsunami that was now just feet away

Maria's eyes widened and she grabbed onto Sara "Sara save me! I can't swim!"

Sara slapped Maria "Over half this crew can't swim, idiot! Do something you good-for-nothing captain!"

Maria looked around and saw a small island behind them, she poked Shina in the head and pointed at it, "Shina-san, can you get us there?"

Shina looked in the direction and saw the island in the distance; she nodded to Maria and said over the wind "I could if you could get us to the top of the wave!"

Maria thought for a moment "Everyone paddle towards the wave! Shina-san has a plan!"

Sara and Hana looked at Maria as if she was crazy, but dipped their hands in the water again and again to reach mid-way up the wave.

The island was close enough so that the pirates could see the jagged rocks at the base of the beach.

Shina looked at Hana and Maria who had passed out from too much contact with the salt water, and at Sara attempting to take them higher up the wave on her own.

"That's good enough, Sara!" Shina called "We'll make it, and maybe we'll get a new ship out of this, too!"

Sara started to say something but was cut off when Shina's calculations failed and the wave swallowed their boat.

Before Maria could open her eyes she noticed that her face was engulfed in sand and she couldn't breathe.

She sat up on her elbows and spit out the sand in her mouth, she wiped out the grains stuck in her eyes and looked around for her crew.

Hana lay on her back sleeping a few meters down the beach and Shina was walking up towards them dumping sand out from her boot, but Sara was nowhere to be seen.

"Shina-san!" Maria called as she waved to Shina

Shina slipped her foot back into her boot and jogged over to Maria.

"Where's Sara?" Maria asked

"I was hoping you would tell me." Shina thought for a minute and looked at Hana "C'mon we'd better go help her."

Maria got up and followed Shina to where Hana lay; Maria bent down and poked Hana's face

Hana's closed eyes squeezed tight and opened to look at Maria and Shina; she sat up and coughed up a little sea water.

Shina helped Hana up and looked at Maria "There's a small trail that leads into those trees, I think there might be a town on this island, and I bet that's where Sara went."

"But, Shina-sa—" Maria started to say

"Just call me 'Shina', okay?" Shina said

In town Maria, Shina and Hana found Sara sitting in a bar with a guy who had black hair, a green button-up shirt, blue jeans and black work boots.

They seemed to be in a well-mannered discussion about something, that they only caught the ending of when they got closer.

"..don't see why 'swordsmanship' is so important…" the guy said using air quotes

"Am I criticizing carpentry?" Sara shot back, and noticed Shina, Maria and Hana standing behind her.

Maria sat down on the chair beside Sara "So who is this, Sara?"

Sara snorted "This is Tom, Kashi Tom; We grew up in the same village."

Maria held out her hand to Tom "I'm Nicoru D. Maria, this is Kato Shina and Hana, we're pirates and---" she looked at Sara "Do you know what happened to our boat?"

Sara nodded "It got wrecked on the rocks, so I used pieces to drag you hopeless idiots to shore."

Tom brightened at this "I can build you a boat!"

Shina frowned "Really?" sitting down at the end of the table

"We don't have any money." Hana stated, sitting next to Tom

Tom laughed "No problem! As long as I can leave this island on my own boat with you hot girls, the boat's totally free!"

Sara took out her katana in its sheath and wacked Tom over the head with it "You're still a skirt chaser, eh?"

Tom laughed embarrassedly.

Within the month Tom had built a small gaff schooner and he was good on his word and charged the pirates nothing for his work.

The crew set off after stocking up on food that Hana managed to get from the local stores.

"We still need a flag." Maria complained

"Then this might come in handy!" Sara proclaimed holing up a black sheet and some white paint

Maria drew two circles overlapping each other and turned them into skulls, she stood up and told Tom to tie the flag to the mast.

Hana brought out some drinks and Maria stood up proudly "Here's to our new ship the Billie-Go, our new crewmate Tom and to the Copy-Copy Pirates!!" She shouted

"Cheers!" Everyone screamed

**A/N: over 1,100 words… not bad. Happy, Sarah? Darby your chapter's next, don't worry!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Ooh, first chapter for 2010, eh? You're all just jealous I don't care about exams enough to study right now. ^^**

**One Piece is owned by Eiichiro Oda, believe me, Oda made me cry with his latest chapter, and I would never make myself cry with manga! D:**

"Ah." Sara sighed contentedly leaning lazily on the wooden rail of the Billie-Go looking out on the sea.

The four Copy-Copy pirates were in various states of relaxation on the great empty ocean, Shina was stretched out on the deck soaking up the sun, Hana was in the cabin reading quietly, Sara was staring at the calm sea, and Tom was sleeping on the bow.

Their captain was up in the crow's nest trying to get her hands untied from the knotted rope Tom had tied them in that morning.

"Dammit." Maria swore as she succeeded in tangling herself up more "C'mon you stupid rope. I could probably bite… though… this... faster!" Maria's hands writhed as she tried to get them free.

Maria finally gave up and decided to gnaw on the rope in hopes of escape, with a few pulls of her teeth the frayed knots gave way and fell to the deck below.

"Ow!" Shina shouted from below "What the hell? Maria!"

Maria jumped down beside Shina "Sorry, Shina, my wrists were starting to hurt and… wow!" Maria ran over to where Sara was leaning "The Sea's so calm! We should go swimming and—" Sara hit Maria over the head with her sheathed katana.

"Don't be an idiot." Sara said bluntly

"She says it as if anyone but you and Tom could swim." Shina said to Sara as she walked over "Maybe to teach her a lesson we should let—oh shit!" She screamed

"What?!" Maria and Sara said together

"What happened?" Tom asked as he walked over

"Something wrong?" Hana asked as she poked her head out of the door to the cabin

"We… we're… in a Calm Belt!" Shina screamed

"You don't look very calm." Maria said

"Shut up, Maria, this is serious!" Shina turned to Tom "Do we have any oars on this boat of yours?"

Tom shrugged "Complete wind-power."

"We have to get out of here before—" Shina was cut off by a dark shadow looming over the five pirates

The pirates looked up to see the source of the shadow right into the gigantic face of a Sea King that had the misfortune to look like a cross between a goldfish and an octopus.

The crew screamed, causing the Sea King's massive tentacle to jerk slightly and slam into the hull of the Billie-Go, sending the pirates and their ship flying.

Everyone screamed as they held onto various parts of the boat for dear life. Shina and Sara screamed while holding onto the rail, Tom clenched his teeth as he held onto a corner of the cabin, Hana braced herself inside the cabin by holding onto the wooden table that was mercifully bolted to the floorboards, Maria laughed joyfully --or perhaps hysterically, no one could ever tell-- as she clung to the mast.

The ship's hull slimmed water, once, twice, three times, before connecting and floating into the sandy shore of a small island.

"Well that was interesting!" Maria grinned

"You idiot! Why didn't—" at that moment Sara sank down harshly onto the deck.

"Sara!" Everyone yelled rushing to see if she was okay, Hana opened the door of the cabin and beckoned them to bring her out of the sun.

They laid Sara out on the small bed in the corner of the cabin, she was sweating and her breathing was heavy.

"What should we do?" Hana asked Maria

"I've never see anyone sick before!" She protested

"I have." Shina said "Tom, get onto that island and see if we can find some animal for her to eat to get her protein up."

"Gotcha." Tom ran off

"Hana, we need something to cool her down with." Shina explained

Hana handed her a glass of ice water as Maria proceeded to have the utmost interest in Sara's condition despite the fact that Shina and Hana confined her to sit in the chair _and stay there_ at exactly out of reach to Sara's bed.

A few minutes later Tom ran back in clutching a small duck, it seemed like a duck considering no duckling could be that big, but no duck that small, not-to-mention it was quacking up a storm, following in Tom and the very un-quiet mini-duck was a girl yelling nonsense at Tom's un-listening back.

Her light-brown hair curled into to spirals at the shoulder-length tips touching the collar of her gray backpack that hung over the shoulders of the green tank-top she wore, the black tattoo of a swallow-tail diving down her thigh was just visible under the hem of her _very_ worn-out grey –or was it faded-black?– jean shorts.

Her red shoes pounded on the wooden boards of the Billie-Go's floor as she stomped after Tom, pulling by the wrist something that seemed akin to a Lolita-Automaton.

"—and I am _telling_ you that I am a freakin' **doctor**, and I have it within my power to save your friend if you don't feed them my good friend Ka first!"

Maria jumped up excited at the new-found development that seemed more interesting than her potentially-dying friend, though Shina being the careful listener and intellectual better of Maria beat her to it and stopped the apparent rumble from breaking out.

"Tom," Shina snatched the small duck from his clutches and dangled it in front of the girl's face "Obviously _someone_ this isn't food, so I would stop trying to make someone eat it." She whirled around to face the newcomer and her… what was that thing anyway? Was she some kind of zombie Devil Fruit user? She mentally shuddered at the thought as she dangled the duck in front of their faces.

"I believe this is yours, uhm…?" Shina left an intentionally awkward sentence intact and in place for their names.

"Darby, actually," The girl said carefully grabbing the duck out of Shina's grasp where it had calmed down some with the threat of being eaten gone "And **his** name is Ka," she said gesturing to the duck "He can't speak, but he knows a lot of stuff, he taught me how to do medicine and… oh my gosh, what happened to her!?" Darby exclaimed pointing at the bedridden Sara.

Darby rushed over to her bedside and took various checks on Sara's well-being before sighing with relief at the non-emergency at the situation.

"She just has a bit of heatstroke; leave her in the shade, have her drink plenty of liquids and make sure she doesn't over-exert herself in the sun for a while." Darby looked from one crewmember to another in turn before her eyes rested on Sara's closed lids.

"Well," Darby said getting up quickly "I suppose that's about it… uhm, thanks for not eating Ka… and… bye!" She attempted to exit quickly with her little duck waddling behind her but Maria got up and stopped her

"Wait," Maria said "Please join my crew, we won't know what to do if that happened again… sorry Shina…" She added quietly "Please stay!" and with that Maria broke out into one of her almost maniacal-grins

Darby looked almost taken aback for a few moments until a soft grin wormed its way onto her face, she closed the small gap between herself and Maria and hugged her "Thank you!" she cried into Maria's shoulder

As the hug broke off everyone turned to look at the weird mannequin in the doorway that hadn't moved or spoken since being dragged into the small cabin.

"Oh," Darby realized "That's Patina; she's a doll that got separated from her crew and needs to get to the next island to meet back up with them."

Patina nodded, her reddish-orange shoulder-blade-length hair bobbing downwards "I just want to get back with the Ocean Lilies."

Shina did the calculations for getting to the next island in her head as everyone surveyed the glassy-eyed automaton dressed like an upper-class chambermaid.

Shina broke the silence before Maria could make up her non-existent mind "We should have you at the next island within the hour." She smiled

"Wait, why didn't you just swim there then?" Hana asked quietly

"Dolls cannot swim, especially when which souls are placed inside them." Patina explained

"That… makes sense…?" Tom said slowly not comprehending, Maria and Darby snickered.

**A/N: Hooray for crap-chapter-endings! –Silence-**

**-cough cough- ANYway, adding Patina in for the last two seconds was a present to ****bonnybanshey**** for her birthday since she wanted her character Patina in my fanfiction if even for a little bit.**

**So… yes… Patina = NOT mine.**

**Uhm, OH! So… yes, ya happy, Cia?**

**(Cia hates my Detective Heiji fanfic to no end (Who can hate Detective Conan? …Oh right… she's a Sasuke fan girl –I say it like it explains everything XD–) and wanted me to get this chapter up (even though she hates One Piece xP)**


End file.
